Earlier this year I did a quick trip back to my hometown of Melbourne. The weather was superb and seeing Melbourne is known to be ‘the city of 4 seasons in a day’, I was grateful it decided to be spring for the entire day. I had also just commenced my photography course so I was eager to try out some of the techniques I had learnt, particularly some night shots as I had not used a tripod before so the night shots below were my first attempt.
I’m starting to get a little worried. Do I have a penchant for collecting strange dogs?
I wonder.
For those of you who follow my blog you may recall my story of my beloved Sausage who disliked walks immensely and you may also know that after her sad passing I adopted another wire-haired dachshound of whom we named Stanley. Sausage always amused us with her absolute refusal to walk and her many other strange behaviours, now it is Stanley who has us wondering if we have a strange effect on our 4-legged friends.
The other night my son and I were happily gnawing on freshly cut watermelon when his Dogship, who not wanting to miss out on any human activity, jumped on the couched and sniffed excitedly in the direction of the watermelon. ‘Stanley, it’s watermelon,’ I said. ‘You won’t like it’. At those spoken words he inched his way closer and having nearly finished my piece, I offered him some.
To my surprise, he ate it. No sniff, no slurp, just one big grab and swallow. And there he stayed, hovering and salivating until he was offered and subsequently devoured more watermelon.
Watching for the boys to come out of school…
It gets better, or should I say gets stranger. As a vegetarian I eat a lot of vegetables (funny that). So the night following the watermelon night, I had made a delicious stir fry of chinese cabbage, carrot, potato and leek sautéed in a thai flavoured spicy sauce. Accompanied by a glass of Pinot and a good movie, I curled up the couch to enjoy my simple meal.
Enter Stanley.
Taking a leap onto the couch and in very similar fashion to the watermelon incident, he once again sniffed excitedly. And once again I said, ‘No Stanley it’s cabbage you won’t like it’.
I really don’t need to say what happened next do I? Yep, he ate it. And the pièce de résistance? The night following the night of the cabbage, I was eating an apple. Yep, he ate that too, straight from the core.
A unique or should I say strange use of his doggy bed…
And I could continue, as there are many, many more strange incidents and events. Making love to the broom, sleeping in, not on his doggy bed, playing with unwilling cockroaches and mistaking a dropped piece of rocket lettuce for a strange yet unique looking bug.
‘Mum, why won’t this strange looking bug play like the cockroaches do…?
So the question remains: Strange dogs or just a strange owner?
A unique or should I say strange use of his doggy bed…
The Sunshine Coast is renowned for its beautiful weather but not so a few days ago when I awoke to find a morning reminiscent of a winter’s day in France, by mid morning however, the uncharacteristic layer of fog had lifted and the sun shone once again.
I definitely do, particularly this last week as I’ve had to finish 8 photography assignments for uni, be a mum and ensure the ever present and faithful Stanley has his 4-legged needs met.
So as its turned out, my challenge to myself to try and ‘postaday’ has fallen to the bottom of my priority list. However with a few moments spare before I dash off to classes (with 8 finished assignments in hand), I thought a small post documenting my last few days work would suffice.
Feel free to comment as I warmly welcome constructive feedback, which in turn can only serve to improve my photography. 🙂
Another great Travel Theme challenge from Ailsa @ Where’s my backpack .
Driving through the Sunshine Caost hinterland with a girlfriend, we saw a run down abandoned shed. Knowing I had the outlandish pair of purple shoes in my boot (there was a valid reason for their presence, trust me) I felt the juxtaposition of the shoes and shed could be an interesting image. An abandoned shed and a pair of fancy shoes…
It’s been said that one should never work with children or animals and from my experience, I tend to agree. When editing my last post Travel themes; Red, I had a giggle to myself thinking about how difficult that shot was to take. Now obviously there were no animals or children in the shot, but what went on behind the scene was a very different story.
I set up the shot for a proportion assignment I was doing in my Dip Photoimaging course. I figured the capsicum and or fruit would look kind of cool in the miniature trolley and would demonstrate the photographic element of proportion. So with different coloured cardboard on hand to create a cyclorama, I placed the props where I wanted and proceeded to take some test shots.
Enter Stanley.Checking my props are in the correct place perhaps?
Yep, you guessed it, just as I thought I had the perfect shot his lordship saunters onto the ‘set’. And as he’s not one to want to miss out and more particularly having the need to be in my presence 24/7, he felt it his job to make sure I had set up correctly. So he sniffed and licked, sniffed again then proceeded to plonk himself down next to the trolley and in doing so, knocked it over and sent the apple rolling away and in a flash was off in hot pursuit. Now I’m quite sure there are many dog lovers among us who probably feel as I do that our 4-legged friends would speak if they could and in the moment I just described had Stanley been able to voice his thoughts, it may have gone a little like this.
‘Oops, sorry mum, it’s all good, I’ll get it’, and off he bounced and on his return deposited the now mildly mangled apple complete with slobber and dribble back onto the cardboard, thus creating a very different effect. Feeling very pleased with himself and the fact he was obviously a great help he began wagging his tail frantically, which connected with the apple, which in turn sent it rolling all over the cardboard leaving mangled apple goo in its wake. Some may have become angry, but not me as I was too busy laughing at my loveable fuzzy faced friend whose only crime, so to speak, was to help. So I simply exchanged the soiled yellow cardboard for a crisp, clean white one and shot off more images whilst Stanley watched from a more prop friendly vantage point; the couch.
Ah animals, you gotta love ’em.
‘So mum, I’ll just watch from here making sure you get the right shot’?
stanley & bear 